Reminders

I don’t know about you, but I could not survive without reminders. I have about ten reminders on my phone. I have them set for two, three, sometimes even four times a day. I use them for all different types of occasions.

Often a reminder goes off and I’ll open it up and say to myself, ‘What is this supposed to remind me to do? Why did I set this?' If it’s a phone call to make, or an appointment to get to, I'll usually remember. But if the task isn’t something I do regularly, without that reminder, I’d probably forget. 

Well, in Nehemiah 8:13-18, our text in this sermon, the people of Israel had a similar problem. This passage is about the Feast of Booths or ‘Tabernacles’. It was a major festival that the nation of Israel was commanded to celebrate every year during the 1st month of the civil year, and the 7th month on the Hebrew ecclesiastical calendar (Tishrei).

This feast was one of the three festivals which the Israelites were commanded to attend at the Temple in Jerusalem. The other two were the Passover and the Feast of Weeks (‘Pentecost’).

God had commanded Israel to celebrate the Feast of Booths, but as we see in our text in verse 17, it hasn’t been celebrated correctly since the time of Joshua, about a 1000 years earlier. Often they would march in procession, have a celebration, but they didn’t build and live in booths for 7 days as commanded in Leviticus, chapter 23.

Why was it so important for them to live in booths? Because this was to be the major reminder of what God did for them in the past, present, and what He will do in the future. 

Referring back to the time of the wilderness wanderings of Israel, Paul admonishes us that ‘…these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.’ (1 Corinthians 10:11)

With that said, what instruction or ‘reminder’ does the Feast of Booths give us in our time? How does it speak to us today? I believe this festival is just as important for us as a reminder, as it was for Israel. Why? Because like the nation of Israel, God wants to remind us of all the same things - what was, what is, and what is to come. God's promises are not only for the Jewish people, but to all who come to God through the ultimate ‘tabernacle’, the risen Jesus Christ Himself.

Listen to the sermon below or watch on our Youtube channel.